1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an in-vivo information measurement apparatus that measures in-vivo information based on the concentration of biological tissue components in a living organism, such as oxygen concentration and hemoglobin concentration.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventionally known body-cavity examination probe includes a plurality of light sources and optical detectors at the tip thereof, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,460 (FIG. 14A etc.). This probe includes two light sources disposed at a surface placed in contact with a surface inside the body cavity by inflating a balloon and an optical detector disposed at the center of these light sources.
However, the size of this type of body-cavity examination probe is limited in order to insert it into the body cavity, and the size of the surface placed in contact with the surface inside the body cavity is also limited. Therefore, it is difficult to provide a large number of light sources and optical detectors. As a result, the acquired measurement results are restricted to a single point, and therefore, there is a drawback in that carrying out measurement over a wide area inside the body cavity or over a specific region in the depth direction from the surface inside the body cavity takes a long time to complete.